Director Danny Boyle’s grisly real-life drama of an eccentric hiker forced to cut off his arm to free himself from a trapped boulder gave assistant editor Shane Reid of The Whitehouse all the inspiration he needed to win First Prize in the 2011 AICE L.A. Chapter Camp Kuleshov trailer-editing competition.
Reid’s trailer transformed 127 Hours into an experimental 1970’s grind house horror flick, with a variety of visual techniques such as color palette changes, reframed scenes and distressed images. He also made good use of the film’s unsettling sequences in which actor James Franco amputates his arm to nail the horror film look and feel.
For his efforts, Reid was presented with a check for $1,000 and an Avid Media Composer 5 at the 5th Annual L.A. Camp Kuleshov awards presentation, which took place on Nov. 15 in the parking lot of Optimus, Santa Monica.
Reid’s winning entry, along with the Second and Third Place winners and the two Honorable Mention trailers, can be screened at the Camp Kuleshov L.A. page on the AICE website by clicking here.
Second Place went to assistant editor Brian Leong of Union Editorial for his trailer which pitches the 2010 Oscar-winner Black Swan as a dramedy. Leong reframes the chilling picture as a lighthearted story of a young dancer’s search for love in the big city. Leong won $500 and an Avid Media Composer in recognition of his efforts.
Third Place went to assistant editor Ben McCambridge of Final Cut, who also chose Black Swan. His trailer sells the picture as an action/fantasy film in which the central character, played by Natalie Portman, becomes a reluctant hero defending New Yorkers from dark, evil forces. His entry netted him a prize of $250 and a Studiophile Q40 headset.
Honorable Mentions went to assistant editor Charla Barker of Hybrid Edit for her version of The King’s Speech as a psychological thriller and to assistant editor Zach Vandlik of The Whitehouse for his take on 127 Hours, also as a psycho thriller.
The assignment for the 2011 edition of the LA Camp Kuleshov competition was to choose one of five films–127 Hours, The Fighter, Black Swan, The King’s Speech or The Social Network–and cut a 90-second trailer which promotes the film as a picture of a different genre.
The judges for the L.A. Camp Kuleshov competition included Zen Rosenthal of General Editorial, Jay Friedkin of Union, Greg Scuton of Arcade Edit, Steve Prestemon of the Whitehouse and Nathan Cali of Optimus. Mat Stevens of Chemical Effects created the opening and IDs for the awards presentation video. Avid provided prizes for the top three winning entries.
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More